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Monday, 10 April 2017

Draughts World Championship - Estonia, 1 to 16 October 2017

Hotel Euroopa - Tallinn

Estonian
Draughts Association, member of the World Draughts Federation (FMJD),
is the organiser of the World Championship in international draughts
this year. The competition will take place in Tallinn, Hotel Europe.
100 top players from almost 50 countries are expected to participate.

“Estonia
is seen as a great innovator in the world, who, despite its small
number of inhabitants, is the forerunner in various fields,” says
Harry
Otten,
President of FMJD. “Preparations for the upcoming competitions are
going very well and I am sure that all participants will be satisfied
with the hosts.”

„This
is definitely a great honor and opportunity for the Estonian Draughts
Association to show Estonia as a top player on the world arena,”
says Tarmo
Tulva,
President of the Estonian Draughts Association. “Also for Estonian
draughts players, it is a unique opportunity to participate in such
an event. Previously, the European Championships have been held in
Tallinn twice (in 2008 and 2014), and also several other title
tournaments have been here, but it is the first time for the Estonian
Draughts Association, that we were trusted to organize an event of
such scale.”

From
the organizing country, 2 female and at least 3 male players can
participate in the competitions. The previous World Championship took
place in 2015 in the city of Emmen in the Netherlands. As the top
countries, the Netherlands and Russia have divided the organizing
rights during the past twenty years. World’s top draughts players
are also expected from Canada, Ukraine, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Latvia,
Congo, etc.

The
World Championship in international draughts to be held in October
this year, takes place in Estonia for the first time. Earlier, the
Youth Championship has been organized in Estonia, but for the first
time, the right to find out the absolute world leader in draughts was
given to the Estonian Draughts Association. “We got credit during
the world title match, which was successfully held in Tallinn in
2013, where the world champion A.Georgiev won from the 2009 champion
A. Shvartsman,” says Janek
Mäggi,
President of the European Draughts Confederation.

„The
right to organise championships is mostly given to the big sports
countries, therefore this is a great honor for Estonia,“ says Janek
Mäggi. “The volume of organising such competitions is vast, the
total budget is up to several hundred thousand euros. Good
co-operation with the Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment,
the Gambling Tax Council and sponsors is essential for organizing
such an event.”

World
Championships in draughts take place every two years. Contestants are
expected from almost 50 different countries. The competition will be
held according to the rules of international draughts, which is
played on a 10x10 game board, differing from Russian draughts, which
is also popular in Estonia. Compared to the rules of Russian
draughts, there are a few modifications.

The
first world champions in international draughts were selected in the
end of the 19th
century. During the last decades, the top players have been mostly
Russian draughts players, who have won the world champion titles
since 1984, with one exception – in 1994, when the Latvian draughts
player Guntis Valneris won the tournament. Until 1990, the country of
origin of Russian draughts players was named USSR. The current world
champion is the young Dutch player Roel Boomstra.

World
Draughts Federation (FMJD,www.fmjd.org)
was founded in 1947 by four federations, France, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Switzerland. Its main purpose was to regulate the
competition on the world championship. From 1897 onwards, world
champions had been proclaimed by France and the Netherlands, which
gave rise to the desire by a number of countries to have more
accurate competition and tournaments, which led to the establishment
of an international organization. By today, the FMJD has grown to an
organization with close to seventy participating national
federations.

The
FMJD has become a member of Sportaccord, which unites all
internationally renown sports federations. As such, the FMJD
membership (and that of the FIDE and WBF (bridge) is part of a more
general movement towards integration of mind sports in the regular
sports arenas.

European
Draughts Confederation (www.europedraughts.org)
was founded in 1998 in Tallinn by the federations of 12 countries.
Today, the confederation has 26 member countries. The first president
of EDC was Jacek Pawlicki from Poland and until the end of 2007 the
head office of EDC was located in Poland. The current president of
EDC is Janek Mäggi and the head office of EDC is the Chess House in
Tallinn. EDC oganises European championships in draughts and its task
is to promote draughts as sports in Europe as well as attract new
member countries.

Estonian
Draughts Association (www.kabeliit.ee)
is an umbrella organization of Estonian draughts clubs and is also
member of the Estonian Olympic Committee. The association is also
member of The
World Draughts Federation and the founding member of the European
Draughts Confederation (EDC,
www.europedraughts.org).